Gregory's Server
i very rarely post news-related articles, but john naughton's short commentary on the intricacies of building a silicon chip fab factory in the US briefly mentions sociologist harry collins, whose analyses of tacit knowledge in technical sciences is worthy of more scrutiny
collins' works rest heavily upon his academic predecessor michael polanyi - a chemist and philosopher of science. polanyi wrote extensively on the subject of "personal knowledge" - indwelling and tacit knowing as crucial parts of the scientific process.
in the physical sciences, and - i've noticed more specifically in computing sciences - the concept of tacit (what we might call "unconscious") knowing are verboten. all knowledge is assumed to be focal, conscious, descriptive and discursive.
the undescribed and undescribable are treated as either hurdles to knowledge, or annoying noise in the signal.
two of his books, Personal Knowledge and the Tacit Dimension, are among the top ten most influential books i've read in my academic career. they deal extensively with the concept of tacit knowing and its role in scientific discovery, among many other important insights into the phenomenology of pre-conscious human experience
i bring this up because i now work in an industry that lies right on the borderline between tacit and explicit knowledge.
making games requires a tacit understanding of 'what makes something fun or enjoyable' that is not completely linguistically describable. making games also requires, in equal parts, objective, logical descriptions of behaviour - written as code! - that rely purely upon explicit description.
these two forms of knowing are "both sides of the same coin" as polanyi would put it - but they're also inherently contrastive. programming something to be fun or playful isn't the same thing as having fun playing it.
i guess i mention this because i wish more had been done to integrate advancements made in the philosophy of science into creative disciplines, like programming and art.
seeing john naughton bring this into something as technical as chip fabbing warms my heart.